German Pair Find Skating Is Easiest Part

Injuries Limit Duo's Medal Haul

NAGANO, Japan — Ingo Steuer has lost count of his knee operations, knowing only that the most recent of the five or six surgeries were last April and July.

His figure skating pairs partner, Mandy Woetzel, spent three months in a hospital and missed half a year of school after getting hit in the head by her previous partner's skate. She still has a scar from the 1989 accident.

In their first Olympics together, at Hamar, Norway, four years ago, Woetzel tripped on a rut and landed on her chin and chest early in the long program. Steuer nearly skated over Woetzel as she briefly lay motionless with the wind knocked out of her, then carried her from the ice. A year after they had been silver medalists in the World Figure Skating Championships, all the Germans took home from the 1994 Winter Olympics were the stitches in Woetzel's chin.

They struggled the next two seasons before finishing second in the worlds again in 1996 and then winning the world title last season. They were headed for the 1998 Winter Games as gold-medal contenders, even if Steuer's knee surgeries affected preparation to the point they decided to play it safe by repeating both programs of a year ago.

"We knew there would be no time to make new programs for the Olympics," Woetzel said in November, after they finished second at the Lalique Trophy competition in Paris.

Although the recycled programs had minimized some of the risk associated with pairs skating, a dangerous discipline, Woetzel, 24, and Steuer, 31, still weren't out of harm's way. On Dec. 8 Steuer was hit on the right arm by a car as he stood on the edge of a street in his hometown of Chemnitz, where he not only trains but owns a Laundromat with a pub attached.

In the aftermath of the accident, Steuer sometimes felt like a tipsy patron going through the spin cycle. Then the question became whether all the problems linked to the impact on his arm would end in time for them to compete in the Olympics at all.

They worked out effectively Tuesday on the practice rink next to White Ring arena, where the Olympic pairs competition begins Sunday night. Steuer still has some pain in the shoulder, hyperextended from the force of a collision that shattered the car's side view mirror and spun him around.

"I was going crazy," Woetzel said. "Every day, people were calling and asking, `Can you skate? How is Ingo?' His condition was always changing, so I finally had to stop thinking about it."

And that was before things got really bad.

Twelve days after the accident, they managed to finish second in the Champions Series Final, even though Steuer said he was in so much agony he does not remember doing anything after the first minute of their 4 1/2-minute long program. The pain from partially torn ligaments in the shoulder radiated into his neck and face, giving him headaches, dizziness and temporary numbness in his cheek and jaw.

That was the last they would skate for three weeks in December and January while Steuer concentrated on twice-a-day treatments. When they returned to the ice, he refrained at first from moving his right arm, which he uses for most of the lifts, throws and the death spiral in their long program.

Only in the last 10 days have they been able to practice those elements. Steuer said their biggest problem is lost conditioning.

"We tried our short and long programs at home, and we did them clean but very slow," Steuer said. "We hoped to get a medal, and I still think it is possible."

Russian pair Elena Bereznaia and Anton Sikharulidze, who beat the Germans at both Lalique and the Champions Series Final, are the favorites. Russians could sweep the medals if Woetzel and Steuer are not near their best.

"It's still painful but it doesn't matter," Woetzel said. "This is our last big event so we will see what we can do to win a medal."

Easy for her to say. It is just that kind of reaction on Woetzel's part that has marked their stormy six-year association.

"We are both stubborn and hot-blooded," Woetzel has said.

"He is very temperamental, and she is sometimes too quick too answer," said Peter Krick, executive director of the German Figure Skating Federation.

Their skating improved three years ago, when they cut the romantic component out of their relationship and limited their often angry interaction to the ice rink. He wound up with their dog, but she has visitation rights.

They first were paired after the 1992 Winter Olympics, where Woetzel finished eighth with Axel Rauschenbach. Disappointed by the finish, Rauschenbach gave up the sport to start a bank job without telling her.

Steuer had spent that Olympic season as a singles skater in the same rink after his previous partner, Ines Muller, also quit. He had the same coach, Monike Scheibe, as Woetzel and Rauschenbach, but Scheibe was reluctant to pair Woetzel and Steuer because of their personalities.